$300 Million Invested in Moscow’s Telecommunications Infrastructure

Moscow’s mobile internet is one of the most affordable amongst the world’s megacities. According to city’s Department of Information Technologies, it costs 2-4 times less than in Barcelona, London and Stockholm, and 5-10 times less than in New York.

The DIT estimates that in 2020 mobile operators invested roughly 23 billion rubles (almost 300 million dollars) in the development of the city's communications infrastructure,almost a third more than in 2019. The mobile network providers worked on expanding their coverage zones and on increasing the network's capacity and data transfer speeds. New base stations were built both within Moscow and in the surrounding region, and the modernization of communication networks in the Metro was completed. A reliable LTE signal is now available in all Metro stations and lines.

It should be noted that the major market players have been able to invest in infrastructure development thanks to the expansion of their subscriber base, which grew by 8% in 2020. This was mainly because of people connecting new devices to work remotely, as well as IoT equipment. The cost of the network operators’ standard services has remained unchanged. In addition, the major telecom companies have started issuing virtual SIM cards.